The present invention relates generally to power supplies, and more specifically to systems and methods for balancing input current with parallel power supplies.
A power supply unit is a component that supplies power to other components in an electronic device (e.g., a computer). More specifically, a power supply unit is typically designed to convert general-purpose alternating current (AC) electric power to useable low-voltage direct current (DC) power for internal components of the electronic device.
Traditional power supplies have a single output that allows two or more power converters to be connected in parallel so as to guarantee equitable sharing of the output currents of each power converter. For this purpose, the power supply is controlled by a regulating circuit whose command signal depends on the currents measured at the outputs from each converter to control the power cutoff circuits at the input. However, when similar output voltages from two or more converters with multiple outputs are connected in parallel, it is difficult to guarantee equitable sharing of the output currents among the converters. Further, while such solutions aim to match output current sharing, there is little or no guarantee of properly regulating input current sharing.